“it’s shocking to me how very few kids at my D’s HS date. I’ve heard that at a lot of colleges it’s the same.”
I blame the boys. They need to get off their butts and ask girls out on traditional, single couple dates instead of going out in packs or keeping all interaction in the virtual world. I don’t know how anyone gets married at all anymore! I am doing my part by encouraging my 2 boys, as they become ready. It helps that their all boys high school is very traditional. If you want to go to one of the dances, you have to bring a girl as a date…period.
Here, kids want to hang out rather than actually go out for ice cream or coffee. The definition of “hang out” is to be home, alone, in someone’s basement. Um, not with my daughter you don’t. I am all for public dates even to a football game but not the whole “home alone” thing, and she agrees.
Sorry about my “bad attitude” last night concerning the FAFSA & CSS Profile. I was just thinking out loud as I came across new and exciting fees that I hadn’t considered before. Today I greet the world with my heart and my checkbook open to new possibilities.
so:
College Application: usually @ $50-$90 depending on the school (unless one can procure the magic fee waiver)
Send SAT Scores: $12 to send normally (and hopefully avoiding a $31 fee for a rush order)
Send ACT Scores: $13 per individual test sitting (again, hopefully avoiding a priority order fee of $16.50)
Send CSS Profile (to most private schools): $25 for the first school & then $16 for each additional school
@amominaz - did you get your question answered? One FAFSA form to complete (one part for the student to fill-out & the financial info for the parent to fill-out). You both get your own FAFSA user ID# and password so that you can do your individual portions and then electronically sign the form.
In reality: it’s best (as the parent) to go over the whole form with the student to make sure everything is input correctly.
We saved some money because all but one of DD’s schools would accept the ACT off her transcript, which was free to send through Parchment. Paid $130 in application fees - most of it to state schools, which doesn’t seem right.
Cheer up - we will be nickled and dimed to death once our kids enroll. 8-}
@LMHS73 - Thanks. How do I get my own login information? D18 didn’t have a login ID, so just set up a new account using her birthdate and SS. I just went in an added the financial information from there. Do I need my own login info?
My daughter has been using “her” credit card to send information so far. Guess I will find out what damage has been done when I get the statement. Yikes.
@amominaz - yes, you’ll need to now set-up your own username & password like you did for your D. You each need your own so you can sign the form. Just google fafsa parent username & password & you’ll get all of the instructions needed to create it.
Filling out the Common App over the weekend, S18 did not even know his current weighted and unweighted GPA. I had to tell him. THIS is why I had to make him sit on the couch and do it in front of me. I am not sure what he spends his days worrying about (I suspect very little), but at least I know he is not over-stressing about college!
@MACmiracle - glad to hear you found your notebook; That happened to me once so I know that sinking feeling of losing a ton of information that took me a LONG time to accumulate!
@MACmiracle Same here; gonna be a wet few days. In fact, now I’m concerned that “Hurricane/Tropical Storm Nate” is going to wipe out our planned trips to schools in North Carolina plus Tulane.
On the CSS Profile, I noticed some boxes that asked for info, but then don’t give enough room to answer the question.
Example: one box asked how many cars we had in the family & the little box under that asked for the make, model, purchase price, year purchased, etc., I entered that we had 3 cars in the family in the first box, but wasn’t even able to input the info for one of them in the second box before it wouldn’t let me type any longer.
Anyone else run across this & have a suggestion or workaround?
I also hated those boxes that asked how much you’re going to pay for college next year & how much you’ll get in scholarships - how the heck do I know?
DD was accepted at another “tiger school” today,Geaux Tigers, LSU. It is one of her top 3 picks.
One more tiger school and she will score the hat trick (too bad the decision doesn’t come until February). Fingers crossed because that last cat school is her #1, at the moment. I think this was the last of her rolling admissions schools and now we will not hear anything more until December. It looks like she should have all the decisions in by mid-February and then it is time to plan some accepted student visits.
As far as dating - DD has been dating her BF for about 18 months…and that puts a whole other spin on the college acceptance wheel of fortune. I think there is an SEC school in our future, at any rate.
It has been several year since we filled out the CSS. I don’t remember there being car questions, but I do remember that I thought the CSS was very involved and I was very happy when we were done with it. I am currently in denial and am hoping that there are no CSS schools in our pile. We will probably tackle the FAFSA on our “date night” this weekend. Yeah we are a fun couple like that.
